Westfield ups the ante on Chelsfield

Thursday 30 September 2004 11:36 BST

AUSTRALIAN shopping centres giant Westfield today slapped a £585m cash bid on the table for White City developer Chelsfield.

Westfield's offer piles the pressure on its compatriot Multiplex, which is also interested in the group. Westfield said it is ready to pay a high price for the company but Multiplex has not said how much it is prepared to stump up.

'Westfield recognises the bid represents a premium price, but we believe we can create significant value through the application of our management and development expertise to the Chelsfield properties,' chairman Frank Lowy said.

Chelsfield, which was bought out in April by its founders for about £1.9bn.

Chairman Elliott Bernerd has a 14% stake after he and backers, including billionaire brothers Simon and David Reuben, invested £404m in the company and took on £1.6bn of debt.

Multiplex, which is building Wembley Stadium and a shopping centre at White City for Chelsfield, owns 7.8% of the company.

While Westfield does not have a high profile in Britain, the company is a household name in Australia and is also a big player in the US where it has most of its properties.

News of the Westfield offer coincided with results from London developer Minerva, which today put a £607 million price tag on its equity. It has upped its net asset value for the year to end-June by 19.6% to 379.5p a share.

Minerva founder and major shareholder Andrew Rosenfeld said the board was still reviewing a number of proposals which 'may or may not lead to an offer'.